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Printed from https://writing.com/main/product_reviews/pr_id/113826-The-Little-Book-of-Hygge-Danish-Secrets-to-Happy-Living-The-Happiness-Institute-Series
ASIN: 0062658808
ID #113826
Amazon's Price: $ 11.34
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This is a very pretty book, if one is into the folk-artsy feel. It does give off the vibe it is trying to communicate: hygge, the sense of comfort, cosiness and safety, which makes one happy in their life.

In Canada, the author correctly points out, we'd call it 'hominess'.

Perhaps that's why I don't get why it's such a big deal. Or perhaps I think a book filled with recipes and sales pitches for expensive lighting, fancy coffee, incessant cake, and minimalist-but-consumerist decor don't really capture what makes the Danish happiness index so fantastic. I would think that the income redistribution, free health care, free schooling, corporate structures allowing for parenting time, and social compacts about work ending at 5pm probably have more to do with it than 4 unscented candles, a 2000 dollar chair and a funky light fixture. I think the cake remains neutral in all of this. Cake is good no matter the situation, IMO.

Call me crazy, but if you stripped all the socioeconomic factors away, I really don't think the 'perfectly designed light casting an ambient pool of happiness' is going to raise too many spirits.
I mean, cake makes me happy, too, but I've never had a cake fight traffic to get me to the daycare on time so I didn't pay the late pick-up charges.

I do, however, agree with: wool socks (merino, not the itchy kind), scarves in every season, and casual attire every chance I get. We could all use more unplugging and more time with a few good true friends. Oh, and blankets, cake and hot cocoa. Of course, I don't know these things as 'hygge'. I know them as 'Canadian staples'.

I also tried one of the recipes (stew). It was good. Being Canadian, I have 1,001 cold-weather stew recipes anyway, so what's one more. It took me longer to make the stew than to read the book (I read it in under an hour...maybe an hour and 15 minutes).

Overall, this is one of those "you'd be happier if..." self-help tropes that ignores the fundamental political and socioeconomic barriers preventing many people from attaining a stable place to even consider the majority of ideas in the book. If you're fortunate to live somewhere where the social climate is similar, there may be some takeaways, assuming you're somewhere in the middle class. Even then, the book gets highly repetitive about 1/4 of the way in.

If you're still interested in it, I recommend borrowing it from a library before buying it.
Created Dec 06, 2018 at 8:34pm • Submit your own review...
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Printed from https://writing.com/main/product_reviews/pr_id/113826-The-Little-Book-of-Hygge-Danish-Secrets-to-Happy-Living-The-Happiness-Institute-Series